


Love Hearts and Bar Tabs

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, F/M, Golden Lace, Jefferson and Graham in the background, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 06:11:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13757970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Golden Lace. After agreeing to accompany Jefferson to a blind date, ‘just in case’, Gold finds himself facing a long, boring evening alone in a bar, chaperoning. Meeting barmaid Lacey brightens this prospect significantly.Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: Love Letter, Candy Hearts, Chocolate, Roses, Blind Date





	Love Hearts and Bar Tabs

“Please come with me. Please. It’s not that I don’t trust Will and Ana’s taste in potential partners but I know how desperate they are to pair me off with someone and I think that might have impaired their judgement and lowered their standards somewhat having been caught up in the terrible romantic fog that seems to engulf everyone apart from you every Valentine’s Day. Please, you have to help me out here.”

Gold looked across the living room at Jefferson, whose hands were pressed together as if in prayer as he beseeched Gold to pre-emptively rescue him from the blind date that he’d been set up on.

“I’ll get down on my knees and beg if it would sway you,” Jefferson added. “I’m not proud.”

Gold rolled his eyes. “There’s really no need to be so dramatic, Jeff.”

“I can’t help it, it’s second nature. Especially when Will and Ana decide that they’re taking my dating life into their own hands and start setting me up with strange men I’ve never met!”

“Do you anything about this man at all, or are you just going to walk into the bar and guess which one he is?”

Jefferson sighed. “His name’s Graham and he’s a friend of Will’s. Well, I say a friend. They met when Graham arrested him.”

Gold snorted. “They really are getting desperate if they’re setting you up with arresting officers.”

“It was all a misunderstanding and everything got sorted out in the end; Graham was very nice about the whole thing and apparently that’s how the connection began. And now it’s culminated in them setting me up on a date with him.”

“A blind date that you want me to sit in on.”

“Not sit in on per se. You’d be at a different table, obviously. You can bring a book if you want. I’d just rather know that I have someone there to bail me out if it all goes down the tubes. A part of me thinks that this is going to be some kind of elaborate set up.”

“As strange as they are, Will and Ana are your friends and I don’t think that they’d do that to you,” Gold said. “For goodness’ sake, Jefferson, you’re thirty-five years old, I think that you can go on a date without moral support.”

“I would have thought that too, if it wasn’t for the last date I went on. You know. The Octopus Incident.”

“I thought we did not speak of the Octopus Incident.”

“We’re not speaking of it, I’m just reminding you of what happened the last time I went on a date.”

Gold raised an eyebrow. “You can’t blame Will and Ana for that one, you asked the Octopus Enthusiast out yourself.”

“I wasn’t aware at the time that there would be cephalopods involved,” Jefferson muttered, and hastily changed the subject. “At any rate, will you come with me? Just in case Graham turns out to be another oddball?”

Gold sighed. He really had better things to do, up to and including unclogging the disposal in the kitchen sink, but Jefferson was one of his oldest friends and it would be unfair to abandon him in what was obviously a time of need.

“Can’t Will and Ana come with you?” he asked. “You could make it a double date, and that would be far less intrusive and awkward than me hovering in the corner.”

“They’re busy that night,” Jefferson grumbled. “I think they set it up for then specifically so I couldn’t ask them.”

Gold heaved another huge sigh.

“All right,” he said eventually. “But you’re paying my tab.”

“Deal.”

X

Sitting at the bar and keeping an eye on Jefferson and Graham out of the corner of his eye, Gold wondered why on earth he had let himself be talked into doing this. There were several things that he’d rather be doing, and he was entertaining himself by listing them all. He could be at home in front of the TV or absorbed in a good book, and he could be drinking whisky that was of a far higher standard than the stuff the bar was serving. He wasn’t sure why Will and Ana had chosen this place as the location for the blind date; perhaps they were hoping that it would be neutral territory and neither of their friends would bolt at the sight of it, but they could have done a little better in terms of class. If Gold was organising a blind date, he certainly wouldn’t have sent the poor lovelorn souls he’d found himself in charge of to the Rabbit Hole.

“So which one are you in love with?”

Gold started at the voice next to his ear, and turned to find the barmaid leaning over, an amused expression on her face.

“I beg your pardon?”

She nodded over at Jefferson and Graham. “Which one are you in love with? You keep glancing over at them and trying to look like you’re not glancing over at them, so you’re obviously keeping tabs on them for some reason. Nothing like unrequited love and pining from afar, although I have to say, you might be getting on for the creepy stage now. Just giving you fair warning.”

Gold gave a snort of laughter and pushed his empty whisky tumbler across the bar for a refill.

“Neither of them, I’m afraid. Sorry to shatter your illusions. I’m here as a chaperone.”

The barmaid raised an eyebrow as she poured another shot into his glass. “Ok, far be it from me to judge people’s ages based on their appearance, but they definitely both look to be over the age of consent.”

Gold took a sip of the whisky, and let his eyes wander over the young woman in front of him. Brown hair in a messy bun, an eye-poppingly sequinned dress that was almost too short and too tight to be decent, and that he could see in the mirror behind the bar was all but backless as well. It was her eyes that held his attention though. They were the brightest and most brilliant blue that he had ever seen, and crystal clear. Sharp and observant, just as she had proved herself to be. Although at first glance her type was clear, the barfly hustling for tips and helping her customers drown their sorrows, there was an air of mystery about her that intrigued Gold. He shook his head, trying to shake the thoughts out of his brain. Maybe it was the fact that Valentine’s Day had been the week before, the commercialised romanticism had somehow infected him. He looked over at Jefferson and Graham again. The two men seemed to be hitting it off rather well and there were no signs of any octopi on the horizon, so perhaps he could slink off home and leave them to it. Knowing Jefferson, he’d completely forgotten that Gold was even there.

“They’re on a blind date,” he explained to the barmaid. “I’m here as moral support for the enthusiastic idiot in the Windsor and waistcoat who feared being kidnapped, arrested, assaulted by a squid or all three.”

The barmaid nodded, and they both watched the couple for a while.

“They’re pretty cute together,” she observed. “If they were in somewhere slightly more upmarket than this joint, then I’d suggest the whole complimentary champagne shebang.”

“Jefferson would love that,” Gold remarked. “He’s always been one for pulling all the stops out. Now that it looks like he’s getting along with his date and isn’t about to be molested by a mollusc, he’s probably kicking himself that it wasn’t scheduled for Valentine’s Day.”

The barmaid wrinkled her nose. “Ugh, he just went way down in my estimations. Valentine’s Day is so overrated. The only good thing about it is that chocolate is half price for a week afterwards.”

Gold gave a snort of laughter, and the barmaid laughed too. Graham and Jefferson seemed to be completely oblivious.

“Lacey.” He turned back to the barmaid to see her holding out a hand over the pumps. “There’s no need to look like I just offered you a poisonous snake,” she added. “I figure that since you’re here getting bored on a fool’s errand, I might as well keep you company. I’m Lacey.”

Gold shook the offered hand. “Gold.”

She topped up his whisky and was about to restart their conversation, but then a few more patrons came into the bar and she had to go and serve them. Gold stared into the depths of his glass, wondering at the circumstances that had led to his new acquaintance. Lacey was certainly interesting to be around and talking to her was a damn sight better than just sitting here alone like a lemon, wondering if and when Jefferson would let him off the hook or whether he could just slip away since it was obvious that the blind date was going well. He didn’t want to leave now, though, not without saying goodbye to Lacey. Whilst they hadn’t exactly been interrupted mid-conversation, they were still mid-interaction and Gold was certain that there was more to say between them.

The new customers having been served and taken their drinks away from the bar to the pool table, Lacey sauntered back towards him, a smirk on her face and a sway in her hips that Gold couldn’t tell if it was meant to be flirtatious or not. Jefferson had often complained that he wouldn’t know if a woman was taking an interest in him even if she was lying naked in a bed of roses purring ‘take me now’, and Gold had to admit that he was probably right.

She returned to her position leaning on the bar, but this time, neither of them looked over at Graham and Jefferson. They seemed to be engaged in some kind of battle of wits between the two of them that Gold wasn’t party to the rules of, or even how it had begun. God, he was terrible at flirting, and he could feel the embarrassment rising. It wasn’t that Lacey wasn’t a good-looking woman. Quite the opposite, she was absolutely stunning, and those intelligent eyes were boring a hole into his very soul. That was the entire problem. Maybe he ought to make his excuses and leave now, Jefferson be damned, before he made a fool of himself, but Lacey’s voice stopped him.

“Love heart?”

“Pardon?”

“Do you want a love heart?” She held up the tube of sweets that she’d just pulled out of the cash register, flicking one of the chalky candy hearts out and popping it in her mouth. “Not exactly the best candy in the world but unfortunately I don’t have anything else to offer. Someone found the stock of gummy snakes I keep behind the tequila.”

Gold laughed and took a sweet, eating it before he could look at the message. Lacey was staring down into the paper tube with an unimpressed expression, pulling sweets out of the pack and arranging them on the bar, perhaps hoping to be able to form a full sentence with them.

“You know, these are really kind of tame.  _You’re sweet, be my sweetheart_. Sounds like something out of a fifties love letter. Personally I think you’re much better off with things like  _wanna hook up?_ ”

“I’m pretty sure someone’s already patented the idea for adult-oriented love heart sweets,” Gold said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I should look into them. They’d make communicating with some of the idiots in here a lot easier. You know what would be even better? Anti-love hearts.  _Piss off, slimeball_  would be the most popular.” She paused. “Not you,” she said quickly. “You’re not a slimeball and I don’t want you to piss off.”

“I’m gratified to hear it.”

“You’re making my evening way more interesting than it normally is, so you’re welcome to stay. Although…” She looked over in Jefferson and Graham’s direction. The two of them were getting up and making to leave the bar. “Your chaperoning might be needed elsewhere.”

Gold shook his head. “No, if I know Jefferson then they’re definitely not going to want a third wheel for what comes next.” He watched the two men leave the Rabbit Hole, and a moment later, remembered something.

“Bastard!”

“What?” Lacey asked. “Did I miss something?”

“He promised to cover my tab!”

Lacey burst out laughing. For a few moments, Gold didn’t think it was all that funny, but then he realised that if it hadn’t been for Jefferson’s paranoia, he would never have met Lacey. It had been quite fun, talking with her, discussing love and romance and quite possibly flirting, although Gold knew he couldn’t correctly identify it as such if he tried. Still, since he had not intended to come out tonight at all and Jefferson had forgotten about him, and since the bar was filling up with the harder drinkers who would monopolise Lacey’s time, it was probably time to leave. He paid his tab and shrugged his coat back on, and Lacey gave him a wave. He was almost out of the door when the barmaid called him back, holding out the remains of the candy heart tube. “Hey. Take the last one for the road.”

Gold took the sweet, looking at the message.  _Call me._

He looked up at Lacey. “It would help if I had your number.”

She winked at him. “I was hoping you might say that.”

A few moments later found Gold on his way home, Lacey’s number scrawled on a bar napkin in his chest pocket.

It seemed that both he and Jefferson had found romance that night.


End file.
